So over the past year or so, a couple of people have been commenting on my list of top 15 songs from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic about how I left certain songs out of the list. But what they didn't understand back then was that the songs they brought up came long after I made that list, so naturally they aren't there because they weren't even out yet. However with that being said, they do bring out a good point in that there is more to bring up now. It's getting close to 2 years since I made that list, and since then Hasbro and DHX Studios has given us more My Little Pony stuff to enjoy with My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, season 4 of the show, and most recently, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks, all in that order. And through that we've been give more stories, new characters, deeper morals, more enjoyable comedy, bigger and better animation and of coarse, more music. As the show has been progressing, its music composer, Danial Ingram has continued to give us some of his best work yet. So with so many new songs to talk about on top of the last list becoming such a hit that more than 1/9th of the total views for this blog consists of people viewing it, it's time for another list. Keep in mind that this only consists of songs from season 4 and both Equestria Girls films. I have said my piece already about all the music from seasons 1-3, so there's little else to talk about the music from that time. Nevertheless, these are my next top 15 songs from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
15) Better Than Ever
As I stated in my review for Rainbow Rocks and when I talked about it on my list of top favorite films from 2014, just about everything in the movie was a bajillion times better than Equestria Girls. And one of the improvements I was happy about the most was the music. When it came to the music in the first movie, the soundtrack as a whole (under the big exception of one song that will be brought up later in this list) was generally bland. True, some of the songs like the intro song and
This is Our Big Night I admit to enjoying anyway. But in the long run, you can tell that Daniel Ingram had little to work with, with a genre like pop, especially with a film where the setting is basically all the characters as teenage humans in high school, thus all the more reason why the film is so controversial among the fandom. Thankfully, with the genre being more on Rock among other things, Ingram was more able to play his strength as a composer in that he gives a good amount of variety in his music. Sure there are still a couple of songs that are bland, but even with the bland songs, you can tell there is so much more heart put into them. And to be
Better Than Ever is the best among those particular songs. This song is in some respects bland, but at the same time it has a stronger and more cheery feel to it that makes it fun to listen to regardless. This song is played very early in the film, and it is mainly about how things in Canterlot High have improved since the events of the first film. Up till now, everyone has basically been going their own way or following their own kind because of Sunset Shimmer ruling the school with an iron fist. But (spoilers for those who haven't seen the first film) She has since been defeated and is currently trying to become a better person with the help of the human Mane Five who sing this song to express how basically everyone is friends with everyone now. A very simple concept, which calls for the song itself to be very short, but it's still very enjoyable. The chorus has a very happy and uplifting feel to it that really sets the emotion of how great it is to see the other students get along with each other as the main characters play. Everyone saying hi to another, a group invites someone to sit with them at lunch, and even Photo Finish taking pictures with Big Mac, The Crusaders, Trixie and Snails. Again, a very simple concept of what they're both singing and showing to us, but at the end of the day, there is much more heart to this song than is expected compared to the first movie, that it really captures how uplifting everything is to the point that things really are better than ever.
14) Make A Wish
Now we start touching on the music from the episode Pinkie Pride, or as some Bronies like to call it: My Little Pony: The Musical. And trust me now when I say that it lives up to its nickname, and so there's a good amount of songs from it that are on this list. To start off, we have the very last song from the episode,
Make A Wish. Everything between Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich has solved, and now we finally get to everypony in Ponyville celebrating Rainbow Dash's Birthaversary. Yes I know it's odd to move to a new town on your birthday, but I guess Rainbow Dash couldn't schedule her moving from Cloudsdale to a time not so particularly special. Anyway, the party itself is huge enough with the roller coaster, a giant Rainbow Dash balloon, and even a giant fruit punch bowl to swim in. But then they top off both the party and the episode with its last song, and holy crud can I not get enough of it. I mentioned earlier in my last list how some songs in the show are catchy-above-all-else and in some cases are so good that you may repeat the part in an episode with that song over and over again until you've had your fill with it. And
Make A Wish is definitely another one of those songs. It may as well be cruel how much this song is so exciting and fun to listen to. Andrea Libman, who does the voice for Pinkie Pie does a fantastic job in giving so much excitement to everything that is happening in the scene. It makes me just want to sing along as I watch all the characters dance and do all these different activities. The only problem I have with it is the problem I had with a few songs from the last list in that it's too short, so naturally, that gives me all the more reason to just watch the scene over and over again almost every time I watch the episode. But at the same time, this song does have an extended version, and while it's not a full length song, it succeeds in giving a much better fill of the song...unlike some other extended editions of songs i.e. Love is in Bloom. But I digress.
Make A Wish is an incredibly fun tune that goes big in the excitement of celebrating Rainbow Dash's Birthaversary. I've listened to it more times than I can count already, and it's just the first song to bring up from Pinkie Pride.
13) Find the Music in You/There's Music in the Treetops (Reprise)
Okay so I'm kind cheating in putting these two songs in one spot, but they're from the same episode and the music is similar, so it kind of makes sense. Throughout the episode, Fluttershy has been trying to deal with her stage fright in a way where she can still express her love of singing. So when Big Mac loses his voice, she uses Poison Joke to get the deep masculine voice (or the Flutterguy voice) to sing for him on stage when the Pony Tones perform. Eventually she accidentally reveals who she is and is so embarrassed that she decides never to sing again, but then her friend convince her to join the Pony Tones and to take "baby steps" when it comes to performing in large crowds. The majority of the episode has the Pony Tones singing Find The Music In You, which I've heard from song Brony Analysts that it's kind corny as far as a barbershop quartet goes. And...yeah, while I have no experience with being in a barbershop quartet unlike my brother, Tommy, I can see how it is a little corny. But at the same time it sort of fits with what is happening. Well...okay, the story is more about Fluttershy finding how to express the music in her rather than finding it, but it still falls into the concept about expressing yourself. And while it's no Winter Wrap-Up, it still has an all around catchy tune to it with Rarity, Big Mac, Flutterguy, and two ponies whose names we never get and have yet to ever be seen again. Then there's the Reprise of There's Music in the Treetops which starts with a nice mix of the song from the beginning of the episode with the beat to Find the Music in You, but then finishes with Fluttershy starting to put more emotion into the concept of finding the music in you. While there's some songs that I listen to a lot more than this one, I've come to appreciate it and even admire Fluttershy a lot more as my favorite among the Mane Six because of how deep she goes in wanting to express the music inside her and how she really does so in both songs. Even before she started getting carried away with her performing for Big Macintosh, she is putting so much heart into her singing with the Flutterguy voice. And even though this is kind of a tie, I am more fond of the reprise of There's Music in the Treetops because we get Fluttershy's real voice and so get to hear the real her go all out in expressing her love to sing. This particular track makes me hope that we get more of this from Fluttershy in future MLP stuff, because I really want to see her go bigger and deeper with her passion. But while I don't have that yet, there is a part of a song that I will get to later that I will argue does have her go at least a little more big deep, albeit more subtly. Until then, somewhat Find the Music in You but more especially the There's Music in the Treetops reprise are two great songs that give me one more good reason to root for Fluttershy.
12) Bats
Despite the fact that this is both a Fluttershy and Applejack song, I like to think of this as mainly an Applejack song. I mean I like Raise This Barn and another Applejack song that's coming up later, but I love how this is such a different from her usual music. Applejack is telling the Mane Six about how horrible the Vampire Fruit Bats are and claims that they need to be stopped. But Fluttershy is trying to make the bats seem less monstrous by explaining how they're just innocent animals that are hungry. The instrumental music and animation just does so much to this scene. You have Fluttershy making her argument with the music coming of as so nice and light and everything looks sunny and happy with the bats looking so adorable. But for really most of the song it's Applejack with a cold look in her face singing a dark tune and everything is colorless with her trees destroyed and the bats look very old and heartless. Actually, Daniel Ingram describes the song as "a banter style musical theater song inspired by Danny Elfman/Nightmare Before Christmas." (Daniel Ingram's Facebook page), and listening to it again, yeah I totally see it. Just from the choice of instruments this song gives a sort of Halloween-like theme to it that it does play a really nice tribute to Elfman's work in that film. My personal favorite part of this song though is the very end where everyone else in the Mane Six agree with Applejack and start chanting to stop the bats with angry looks in their faces except for Pinkie Pie who is as bright and smiley as ever. It's just a great Pinkie Pie moment. What more else to say except "Stop the bats! Stop the Bats! Make them go and no come back!" ...oh yeah, and FLUTTERBAT IS FREAKING AWESOME!!!!
11) Music to my Ears
This
song is actually from one of the prequel shorts for Rainbow Rocks, but
does not mean that it should not be recognized. For those of you who
don't know, part of the popularity in the Brony community revolves
around background characters - or background ponies as we call them -
from the show. And if there's one particular member of the six most
popular background ponies that is loved the most to the point where it's
practically morally wrong to hate...that would be Derpy Hooves by a
landslide (I mean come on, she's just so precious!), but I think it's a
safe bet to say that the second most commonly loved background pony (and
apparently the most marketable for Hasbro) is Vinyl Scratch, a.k.a.,
DJ-PON-3. And if making us happy during the last film wasn't enough
after taking off her shades and showing her magenta-colored eyes, then
they took things several steps further in Rainbow Rocks, starting with
the first prologue short; Music to my Ears. During the short, Vinyl is
listening to some dubstep music and dances to it while walking to buy a
pastry at Sugercube Corner and then to school where her headphones are
taken by Principle Celestia, only for her to put on her spare earbuds
and the music just continues. There's no lyrics to the song, she doesn't
say a line - heck the only one who says anything is Mrs. Cake - it's
basically just Vinyl listening to dubstep music while everything around
her moves and is synchronized with the beat of the song from birds, to a
crossing guard, to a couple of students during the end. The song itself
- while arguably simple in the ways of dubstep (or at least I assume
that as someone who doesn't listen to a lot of it) but it does have a
very fun beat to it that makes you want to dance along to it with Vinyl.
But the real heart of it is honestly Vinyl herself. She is a DJ - thus
the stage name DJ-PON-3 - and so the song is enjoyable mainly because
despite the fact that she's a background character, we get to see her in
her element just the way so many of us love her. Because since they are
indeed background characters, certain ones like Vinyl usually don't
have much of a focus in what happens in the show. Heck, despite her
popularity, she has only appeared in about six episodes in the entire
show - that's six brief appearances in a show that is soon to reach a
hundred episodes mind you. So naturally, we Bronies tend to somewhat treasure and - depending on the appearance - exploit the few moments we have
of these characters when they're actually in the show. So when someone
like Vinyl goes so far as having her own short from DHX and Hasbro, pff,
who could not be happy to see that. I know I'm making this more about
the character than the song itself in this particular slot, but that's
because it's the character that brings a lot of the fun in listening to
this particular song. There are some things we can't help treasuring
when it comes to our background ponies, and so Vinyl makes it too big of
a deal for me to not at least put this particular song on the list.
10) Apples to the Core
Coming back to songs that are more Applejack's style, we have the apple family singing a country road trip song with Pinkie Pie. Here, they recently discovered that Pinkie Pie might actually be related to The Apples and thus part of the family. But in order to find out for sure, they go on a road trip to visit Goldie Delicious to see if it's true. During the trip, the Apples decide to get Pinkie Pie even more excited in being part of the family and sing about how strong of a family they are. What makes this song much stronger in comparison to Raise This Barn right off the bat is how the lyrics are a lot better. Because like I said in the last list, as fun as that song is, the lyrics where a little childish, at least by the normal standard of the music in this show. Also, the melody is very catchy, but not in a both love and hate way like Raise This Barn. The beat to this song is slower but it feels so much more exciting and uplifting. And a lot of that comes from it being a song that is about family. Almost everypony has their own part in the song that expresses how loving the Apples are such a family that it's no wonder Pinkie is so excited to be a part of it. I remember when I went to a Brony convention a few months back and they where playing this song during the first night there, and I remember just about everyone having so much fun dancing to it. As far as Applejack or Applejack related songs, it's arguably one of the strongest. It's catchy, it's fun and it's just an enjoyable song that keeps it in your head that they're Apples to the core. (Eeyup)
9) Shine Like Rainbows
Okay this is the last one on the list that takes place during the end of an episode or film. I promise. Anyway, this is played during the end credits of Rainbow Rocks where The Dazzelings have been defeated, Twilight's back in Equestria, and Sunset Shimmer is officially in The Rainbooms as a new singer and guitarist. Thus we get the final song in the film; Shine Like Rainbows which, in short, just gives a very sweet and happy final touch to both the soundtrack and the movie as a whole. During the song, we get a montage of Sunset Shimmer finally getting to join with the group with playing in the band as well and clips of her getting along with other students in Canterlot High both of which is just fantastic to see after all of her struggling. And the song gives a strong sense of unity, particularly during the end of the song where it builds ups during the bridge and then the entire cast sings along about shining like rainbows...which sounds a little sillier just saying that, but it's much more powerful here. Also, the sequence gives us these wonderful character illustrations that where drawn by Katrina Hadley from the art department for the film. It's sweet, it's fulfilling, it gives a perfect ending to the story after everything all of the characters (especially Sunset Shimmer) goes through.
8) The Goof Off
I think this is without a doubt the favorite song/scene from Pinkie Pride for almost every single Brony in the fandom. But even though there's still some songs from the episode to come that I like better, that does not make me ignorant as to why so many people really love this. Pinkie Pie challenges Cheese Sandwich to a Goof Off for the right to headline Rainbow Dash's party and be recognized as the ultimate party pony. So with Rainbow Dash to judge who is the goofiest, Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich go all out in their... Pinkie and Cheesie-ness... okay, maybe we Bronies need to create an official term for what exactly to call their... random, breaking the 4th wall and destroying physics abilities. But I digress. One of the biggest strengths of this song is Cheese Sandwich, primarily because he is voiced by Weird Al Yankovic. And when it comes to both the music and the character itself, they take possibly every single advantage with that. A lot of the music in this song is content from some of Weird Al's other polka's songs. In fact the funniest part of the song (arguably) is when he briefly sings a polka rendition of
The Smile Song and denies it when Pinkie Pie calls him out for using her song. But what makes the song even more fun is all the goofiness that Cheese and Pinkie do...and boy do they go all out. You have Pinkie Pie turning a fake mustache into a cupcake, Cheese playing the accordion on a giant cheese wheel, followed by dancing with cheese on his back hooves, and two live-action cutaways of Cheese's rubber chicken Boneless and Pinkie's pet baby alligator Gummy. This may not be my favorite part of Pinkie Pride, but man, that doesn't make the song any less fun with giving us so many things that are just so incredibly...well...goofy.
7) The Cafeteria Song
Speaking of songs that are catchy and tend to be listened to over and over again,
Make A Wish is practically a mercy compared to this one. As I said before, the soundtrack for Equestria Girls is mostly bland, and the film itself has a ton of controversy. If you want more detail on that, just read my review for the movie. But if there can be only one thing that even a good amount of Bronies who hated the movie admit was good, it would be the scene where this darn song takes place. The human Mane Six are all trying to get students in Canterlot High to vote for Twilight as the princess of the Fall Formal so that she can get her crown back. So they eventually decide that the way to do that, is to put on a show at the Cafeteria and sing about friendship and why they should vote for Twilight. And thus we get
The Cafeteria Song, also named
Equestria Girls, or otherwise known as
Helping Twilight Sparkle Win The Crown. Lot of people either love or hate this song - mainly for the same darn reason: it is so mother freaking catchy to the point that it's dangerously addicting. In fact, it's so good that only hearing a little bit of it in the second trailer to the film gave some Bronies like me a little bit of reason to not be so scared about the movie coming out. You see the first trailer for this film gave us the basic premise with a song that was used ONLY for that trailer. In short, I for one pretty much thank heaven that, that particular song wasn't used again, because it was so bland and commercially girly that it should be little wonder that the trailer scared to many of us into thinking that the movie was going to ruin everything that is great about the show. But then the second trailer came with the last half of it playing this song, and people started to lower their defenses over the movie and even began to highly anticipate what the full version of the song was going to be like. So when we finally got to this scene during the first time watching this film, man, it really hit those high expectations and then some. First it starts off simple with Twilight's friends starting a beat with their trays and clapping hands, and then the real music begins to start with the characters singing in a very slow pace. But then the music starts building up with the pace going faster and faster and you start to get goosebumps all over your arms from all the build up... well at least I do. And from the moment Applejack takes off Vinyl's shades to show us her red eyes all the way to the end, the rest is giving us a song is basically
Let It Go for Equestria Girls. I don't know if I'll ever forget the first time I watched the scene where this song took place, because from the moment Vinyl's shades where off to the end, I had the biggest smile on my face that I had ever genuinely given in ages. This song has so much excitement and joy to it that I had to be careful how many times I played it in order to not get sick of it. Because a lot of us Bronies did overplay this song a lot. Heck, it may as well took until season 4 with all its new MLP content for people to stop going on and on about it, and probably not even then depending on the Brony/Pegasister. This was originally going to be a few places lower on the list because of how I myself got over it because of season 4 as well as Rainbow Rocks. But listening to it again while working on this list, I realized that it deserves more credit than that. Because even if we've moved on to bigger and better things since the first Equestria Girls movie,
The Cafeteria Song is one element from the film that is too catchy and has too much pure joy to it to be remembered as anything less than one of the best.
6) Hearts as Strong as Horses
So when season four started, it took a couple of episodes before we got the first song of that season unlike the first three. But what an episode they gave us for the first song. This particular episode, Flight to the Finish is one of my very favorites, because almost everything about the characters, the story, the moral and so was just wonderful. The Cutie Mark Crusaders have just figured out what to do to audition for waving the Ponyville flag for the Equestria Games (MLP version of the Olympics), which leads to Scootaloo inspiring the other Crusaders into believing that they will win, leading to what many view as the best song from the Cutie Mark Crusaders yet. The music gives this very spirited feel to it with drums played like they're from a marching band from a high school or college while The Crusaders are singing about how determined they are to win and will not let things like being short get the better of them. And through it all, they're either marching proudly, or trying to exercise by kicking a sand bag, trying to go up a couple of steps, beat Bulk Biceps at tug-of-war. Put all of that together, and you have a song that really makes you feel pumped and full of spirit like The Crusaders. My favorite part in the song is during the last 23 ish second of the song where the music builds up and The Crusaders start concluding the song. It has this really powerful feel to it that gives you this feel like they really can take on anything. It's especially powerful during the reprise of the song during the end of the episode where after the dilemma is resolved, The Crusaders are all pumped again to go and win the competition. As they race to the Crystal Empire, the reprise just makes that last part of the song even more powerful because it makes the resolving of the conflict so much more satisfying that they are more confidant than ever to play to win. I get a smile on my face almost every time I go into Netflix or the DVR to watch Flight to the Finish considering it's one of my top favorites, and this song is absolutely one of the reasons why.
5) Pinkie the Party Planner
Like I said before, despite the fact that most people have
The Goof-off as their favorite song from Pinkie Pride, the are two songs that I like so much more than that song without question. And the first of those two songs is the very first song of the episode, Pinkie the Party Planner. I'm not even sure to begin with what I especially love about this particular song. If I don't get excited whenever I start watching Flight to the Finish, I certainly will when watching this episode from the moment this song begins to play. Throughout the song, it displays how much of a party planner Pinkie Pie is and what a big impact her planning is to everypony in Ponyville. And boy does it give such a happy feeling from the moment the music begins to play. According to one of the writers of the show, Amy Keating Rogers, this song was based on the song
Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and you can tell the similarities. But where it differs from Belle in the best way is how unlike in that song where the townsfolk are mostly criticizing Belle for being so different, the ponies in Ponyville are just praising Pinkie Pie for giving so much joy through her parties. I can't help but love how this is the beginning song because it makes everything that is happening within the less than 2 minutes of it feel so happy. Pinkie Pie loves making ponies smile - as established by The Smile Song - and how she caries that out through her parties, and the townsfolk are just excited to see her start setting up another big party. Heck, we even get to hear Mr and Mrs. Cake and even Diamond Tiara finally have singing roles for the very first time, much to the excitement for a fair amount of Bronies...even if we naturally dislike Diamond Tiara. What I especially love about this song though is how it makes the entire episode work as a musical. What I mean is how some big Broadway shows like Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked and Sweeney Todd will reuse certain melodies from some of their songs and put them somewhere in parts of other songs as their shows go on. So I really like how on top of this song getting a reprise during the end, they do the same thing during what is my favorite song from Pinkie Pride. For that reason along with the other songs, I personally think that Daniel Ingram was just beginning to figure out giving us a musical in an episode of the show with A Canterlot Wedding and Magical Mystery Cure, and finally perfected it with Pinkie Pride. And I can't ask for a song that gives such a happy feeling in a way that excites me whenever I watch this song than
Pinkie the Party Planner.
4) Battle (Battle of the Bands)
Despite how much we really enjoyed the show giving us a villain song in A Cantelot Wedding with
This Day Aria, we have not been given another one in the two seasons since then. But thankfully that changed when Rainbow Rocks came out with the main villains, The Dazzelings, making a memorable impact partly by giving us not one, but TWO villain songs (two and a half if you count their part in
Welcome to the Show), both of which are great. And their first song in the film was
Battle (Battle of the Bands). The Dazzelings are sirens from Equestria who use their singing to create disharmony and feed of the negative energy of others. So they begin to do that here, when they use their song to convince the students at Canterlot High to turn the upcoming musical showcase into an all-out Battle of the Bands. This leads the students (save for Sunset Shimmer and the human Mane Five) to become very competitive towards each other, giving off negative energy for The Dazzelings to feed on. From beginning to end, this song works beautifully as a villain song. The lyrics work so well in how they're used to persuade the students to act this way, particularly with how they make what they're singing sound like well meaning, encouraging words about individuality and importance to make people competitive with lyrics like "Here's a chance to find your flame, are you a loser or a fighter?" and "You're a star and you should know it. Yeah, you rise above the rest." I really like that it's a song where the villains are using persuasion and trickery to get to their goals. Just the wordless vocalizations that The Dazzelings sing during the very beginning of the song gives such a wicked feel to it. It's a beautiful tune, but you can hear how its also cold and conniving. And it's really nice touch that during the first verse, there will be some echoes at the end of each line. I also like how similar to the villain song
Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid, it comes off quiet and smooth, but when they start getting to the point about having a battle of the bands, it comes off loud and energetic. What makes it even better is how during the last minute or so of the song, students begin arguing against each other an expressing how much they want to win and it leads to them singing along, expressing how they're determined to win the competition. Plus, this is the first time we get to see my favorite background pony, Octavia Melody in one of the Equestria Girls films. And considering she has appeared in the show even LESS than Vinyl so far, just about almost any appearance she makes in this film pleases me greatly. Sunset Shimmer failed miserably to really intrigue most people as a villain despite her potential in the last film, but The Dazzelings make up for it majorly starting - in part - with
Battle (Battle of the Bands).
3) Under our Spell
The second villain song by The Dazzelings and probably the favorite for most Bronies. Truth be told, it was a little tough to choose which of The Dazzelings song between this song and Battle (Battle of the Bands). Because the first song, again, has a strong touch as a villain song because of how The Dazzelings are persuading the students, whereas Under our Spell - when you generalize what they're saying - is basically them just going *mocking singing voice* "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, we have you in our control" But the more I thought about it, I realized that this is the one that I listen to the most whenever I play the soundtrack of the film on my phone. This song is much more catchy and in a way works just as well as a villain song because of how proud and confidant Adagio (the leader of The Dazzelings) is with their work in using everyone in the school. Bands are competing against each other, other students along with Principle Celestia and Vice Principle Luna are hypnotically...well...dazzled by The Dazzelings' performances, and you can see deep in Adagio's cruel facial expressions that she's loving every minute of it. Meanwhile, we are given a montage of the battle of the bands where everyone is competing with each other. And it builds up the suspense with what Twilight and her friends are going against to say the least. Competitors literally blow their opponents away, eliminating them, The Rainbooms are bickering at each other much to the dismay of Twilight and Sunset Shimmer, The Cutie Mark Crusaders perform their song with the most crazy look in their eyes, LyraBon becomes canon and Octavia is knocked off on the first round...well okay, I'm not a fan of the last two parts, but the rest of it is awesome. It's also a great example of how the animation for this movie is a giant improvement from the last one with the everything that is happening in the competition. But my personal favorite example is shown in the picture for this slot where there's a remarkable use of lighting and shadow. Ultimately, Under our Spell gives us a very catchy villain song that expresses how The Dazzelings have the upper hand as their deceit plays out with the actual battling of the bands and people falling under their spell more than ever. Top that off with an evil laugh from Adagio during the end of the song, and you have the favorite Dazzelings song for a lot of Bronies including myself.
2) Pinkie's Lament
Here we are. This is my personal favorite song from Pinkie Pride. It's not the catchiest song in the episode like Make a Wish, it's not as fun as The Goof-off, and it's not exactly as cheerful as Pinkie the Party Planner, but it's by far the most emotionally powerful. All the ponies in Ponyville become more excited and interested in Cheese Sandwich's party style than Pinkie's and start to outright ignore her. One would make the argument that this is a plot hole to the story that they would do that after praising Pinkie in Pinkie the Party Planner, but to me personally, considering how the townsfolk tend to get about excited by almost anything form out of town whether it's Cheese Sandwich or the Flim Flam brothers TWICE, I think we say that's just a matter of them getting dazzled easily being members of a small town. Anyway, this not only hurts Pinkie's reputation, but it disheartens her as to whether or not she is fit to even be a party planner if Cheese Sandwich is the Super duper party pony. Thus we get Pinkie's Lament, where she sings her sadness away with the music giving a deep and sad tune. She tries to find something else to do, hoping that there's more to her than parties, but she fails in the stuff that she tries out for. She eventually starts giving up parties completely with putting away her party cannon and deflating her balloons - which was sort of disturbing to watch since she kind of made it look like she was suffocating her balloons. But then when she starts looking at pictures of past parties she's done, she begins to regain her confidence and becomes determined to get her reputation back from Cheese Sandwich - leading to The Goof-Off. As enjoyable as the other songs from this episode are, I just love how emotional this particular song is. I get goosebumps the moment Pinkie Pie expresses all of her feelings throughout the scene. You just can't help but feel sorry for her when she's so sad an defeated, but then start to become hopeful as she begins to hope again about her party planning. That last part is actually my favorite section of the song. It starts off building up the joy Pinkie is regaining until finally she lets everything out while looking in the distance on her balcony. It's like Belle during the second half of Madame Gaston in Beauty and the Beast; she is just giving her heart out to that part of the song. And then finally, she makes the decision to face Cheese Sandwich while reusing the melody from Pinkie the Party Planner. This is what I was talking about when I discussed that song. Like a musical from Broadway, they reuse the melody in part of a separate song and also gave it a reprise during the end, and that is spectacular to me. All the other songs from Pinkie Pie are great, but it's Pinkie's Lament that I like the most because of how powerfully deep and emotional it gets with Ponyville's party planner.
Now before I get to the number one song on this list, I think I should already point out the honorable mentions.
Honorable Mentions:
1) Glass of Water
Discord gets his own song in season 4 when he comes to Twilight and Candace with the blue flu and make all these sorts of requests to take care of him. It's fast, it's energetic, and of coarse, it's chaotic. Definitely worth mentioning.
2) The Rappin' History of the Wonderbolts
Pinkie Pie tries to help Rainbow Dash study for her Wonderbolts test through music. And she decided to do that through rap and almost every 90's rapping music video cliche that goes with it. 90's clothing, the video set to fullscreen, Vinyl Scratch scratching records, it's just a ton of hip-hop fun. Also who knew Doctor Whooves likes to rap?
3) Awesome As I Want to Be
Rainbow Dash finally gets her own song!!!!! And it's about darn time! She may not be one of my personal favorite characters, but up until Rainbow Rocks, I thought it was wrong that she didn't have her own song unlike the rest of the Mane Six. So it's great that we finally see her get her own song that also fits her personality. Granted, it's mostly her showing off how arrogant she is, but if you look past that, it's still a fun tune to enjoy.
And now, the number one next top song from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is....
1) Welcome to the Show
It's been really hard with which song to pick for this list, but ultimately, I have to go with Welcome to the Show as number one. Why? Because it serves as a very climax of everything that happens in Rainbow Rocks. It's the finale musical battle between The Dazzelings and The Rainbooms with Sunset Shimmer and the music fits perfectly with what is happening. It starts off with The Dazzelings vocalizing again, but unlike before, it gives more of a sense of confidence that they have truly won. It carries on with this feeling as Adagio begins to sing, until the music becomes louder and all three of The Dazzelings sing of how victory seem all but certain as they transform into half-pony forms with bat-like wings. But then The Rainbooms play their counter-spell with the help of Vinyl Scratch and her car that transforms into a DJ station (which is obviously just to sell toys even though the toy of the car doesn't do that, but hey, it's still freaking cool.) And this part is actually my favorite part of the track because of Fluttershy. As I said when I was talking about Find the Music in You and the reprise for There's Music in the Treetops, I have come to really admire Fluttershy more for her desire to let out her passion for music. And while we haven't quite been given more than that in the show, there is a part in another song that goes a little deeper. And the counter spell during Welcome to the Show is that part. Much like the reprise of There's Music in the Treetops and Pinkie's Lament, but more so, I really love how deep and emotional the song itself is. But what really helps is how they're been building it up. Over the coarse of the movie, Fluttershy has been trying to get The Rainbooms to play a song that she wrote. She keeps trying to bring it up but is completely ignored by Rainbow Dash. Finally, Rainbow Dash suggest to use her song at last as the counter spell against The Dazzelings. And when you consider all of that and listen closely to the song, you realize that Fluttershy is using it to deeply yet subtly give us a direct expression of how much she wants to let her passion out. Just the lyrics of the song say it all:
- Don't need to hear a crowd
- Cheering out my name
- I didn't come here seeking
- Infamy or fame
- The one and only thing
- That I am here to bring
- Is music, is the music
- Is the music in my soul
Gonna break out (Out!)
Set myself free, yeah
Let it all go (Go!)
Just let it be, yeah
Find the music in your heart
Let the music make you start
To set yourself apart
Combine those lyrics with how happy but expressive the music is on top of the fact that it's specifically Fluttershy who wrote the song, and you find out that it truly is about her wanting to express her passion and not care about what people thing despite her shyness. And that is just wonderful to me. But before long, The Dazzelings fight back with astral versions of their siren forms and through an literal fight through music, overpower the Rainbooms. Twilight asks Sunset Shimmer to help, and so with new resolve, Sunset Shimmer begins to sing the last part of the song. Vinyl Scratch gives Sunset a beat to start off, but then the music slowly picks up when Twilight sings along with her until finally it goes in all out joy as the rest of the Rainbooms join in. And with the new song, Sunset Shimmer transforms into her own half pony form and the spell on the other students is broken. The students begin to sing along to the song, and unlike
Battle (Battle of the Bands) where they are thinking of themselves, they are singing together in friendship as the songs ends with The Dazzelings defeated for good. The entire track as a whole just gives a satisfying climax to everything that has happened in Rainbow Rocks. The villains are winning, the heroes fight back only to be overpowered, and when all hope is lost, it's Sunset Shimmer - who has been suffering from lack of confidence in how she has truly reformed form her evil ways - overcome her insecurities and lead The Rainbooms to save the day. It's epic, it's emotional, it's dramatic, it's a ton. And that's why
Welcome to the Show is my pick for the next number one song from My
Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
Whew.
This list took longer than the last one to write. But hey, going into
so much more detail about what's good about these songs just shows that
they are getting better and better with the music. And here's hoping
that they continue to do so in the future.
Speaking of the
future actually, Hasbro, DHX, I got a question for you guys; WHERE IN
THE WORLD IS SEASON 5!?!?!?! WOULD IT KILL YOU GUYS SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY
TO AT LEAST GIVE US A DATE FOR THE SEASON PREMIERE BY NOW!?!?!?!?!?
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